Last time I checked a business needs to make a profit sooner or later otherwise the won't be in business.
and yet DL has generated some of the largest profits the US airline industry has seen in decades despite losing a little chump change in direct refinery operations.
but you also continue to fail to grasp that DL's goal for the refinery was to control the price of fuel, its largest cost. Because refineries continue to close refineries, for which jet fuel is a side product, the supply continued to decrease and the crack spread continued to increase. The refinery may never show a profit on a standalone basis which is what is required for accounting purposes but DL could achieve its goals - and likely already has done so - by forcing down the crack spread and thus the cost of its overall fuel bill.
Well that should make all investors feel better about the losses???
See my above response again...
Maybe when the "New American" takes the place of the "largest non-government fuel purchaser in the US", Delta can unload Trainer on them and cut their losses.
who said anyone was happy w/ a loss? The losses so far have been directly attributable to startup of the refinery and were compounded by the damage to the refinery during Sandy. Given that the exec in charge of the refinery quickly yet quietly left after a fairly short period, you have to consider the possibility that DL's board and CEO was very unhappy at the decision to keep the refinery going to accelerate the startup process even while most other refineries shut down during Sandy.
And, again, DL's stock price and market cap continues to increase which means that investors really don't see the refinery as an issue and likely are able to understand the true dynamics of the refinery and fuel costs.
It is doubtful that any other airline will buy a refinery because it is not certain that a 2nd refinery would achieve the same results in pushing down the crack spread as DL has achieved. Not that DL execs said that the crack spread for jet fuel has fallen in the NE but not in the Midwest. DL's solution stated then was to consider sending its own jet fuel to the Midwest to push down the crack spread in a region where DL has two hubs and is the largest purchaser.
AA or UA could try to do the same thing in Texas (UA did consider a refinery purchase) but there are few regions where there are both large airline operations and available, idled refineries that could be put back in service producing higher levels of jet fuel than refineries normally produce.
The principle of DL's refinery decision is to put more jet fuel on the market and push down prices and as long as Trainer operates it will achieve that goal regardless of the standalone costs of operating the refinery.
It also doesn't change that the refinery deal is less than a year old and businesses of all type consider the finances of established lines of the business differently than they do established lines of business. DL isn't thru w/ working on its refinery strategy.